Most English surnames began in the Middle Ages, as a way to tell all the Johns and Williams apart. They came from four places: a job (Fletcher, the arrow-maker), a place (atte Wode, at the wood), a father (FitzWalter, Walter's son) or a nickname (Armstrong). This medieval name generator uses real first names from the period and real surnames of each kind, with what they meant.
Four kinds of medieval surname
- Occupational: Smith, Baker, Fletcher (arrow-maker), Cooper (barrel-maker), Chandler (candle-maker), Webster (weaver), and Chaucer, from the French for a maker of shoes or hose.
- Locative: where someone lived, often written with atte, "at the": atte Wode became Atwood, atte Welle became Atwell.
- Patronymic: a father's name. Norman families used Fitz, from the French for son (FitzWalter); others added -son (Johnson, Watson from Wat, a short form of Walter).
- Nicknames: Brown, Long, Armstrong (strong in the arm), Russell (red-haired).
Surnames only settled into family names gradually, between about the twelfth and fourteenth centuries; before that a byname could change with a new job or a new home.
The first names
The first names here are ones that were common in England after the Norman Conquest: John, William, Robert, Richard and Walter for men; Alice, Agnes, Matilda (or Maud), Joan and Isabel for women. A few, like Walkelin, Rohese and Hawise, have fallen out of use and sound wonderfully strange today.
Using the names
- Give the surname a reason. A Fletcher who can't make arrows, or an atte Welle who lives nowhere near a well, has a story.
- Use nicknames freely. Medieval people did: Wat for Walter, Hob for Robert, Dick for Richard.
- For knights and nobles, try the Knight Name Generator; for the Anglo-Saxons before the Conquest, the Anglo-Saxon Name Generator.